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They had 'collected clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used in the Ein Tarma, Moadamiyah and Zalmalka in the Ghouta area of Damascus'.

Mr Ban said: 'The United Nations mission
has now confirmed, unequivocally and objectively, that chemical weapons
have been used in Syria.

'The international community has a responsibility to hold the perpetrators accountable and to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.'

He called on the Security Council to 'move quickly to consider and implement' the plan for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons through a 'clear resolution'.

He said there 'should be consequences for non-compliance' by the Assad regime but also warned the international community not to be 'blind' to other widespread crimes committed by the Syrian government.

Professor Ake Sellstrom, head of the chemical weapons team working in Syria, hands over the report on the Al-Ghouta massacre to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

The report confirmed there is 'clear and convincing evidence' that nerve agent sarin was used in the attacks

'This is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988. The international community has pledged to prevent any such horror from recurring, yet it has happened again,' he said.

'This is a matter that truly affects international peace and security. After two and a half years of tragedy, now is the moment for the Security Council to uphold its political and moral responsibilities and demonstrate the political will to move forward in a decisive manner.

'My hope is that this incident will serve as a wake-up call for more determined efforts to resolve the conflict and end the unbearable suffering of the Syrian people.

'We need to do everything we can to bring the parties to the negotiating table. This is the only path to a durable solution.'

Although the team was not mandated to establish who used the banned weapons, Mr Ban said those responsible should be 'brought to justice'.

He said: 'As I have repeatedly said, those perpetrators who have used the chemical weapons or any other weapon of mass destruction in the future will have to be brought to justice. This is a firm principle of the UN.'

Brazilian Paulo Pinheiro (right), Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, gestures next to commission member US Karen Koning Abuzayd (left) as they present their report

UN-mandated rights investigators said they were probing 14 alleged chemical attacks in Syria, but said they were still unable to pin the blame on either side

Mr Pinheiro emphasised that the 'vast majority' of casualties in Syria's civil wars is from conventional weapons like guns and mortars

Mr Hague said the UN's findings backed the West's claims that Syrian government forces were behind the attack.

He
said: 'This report, which we are analysing in detail, is clearly very
damning. It confirms that there was indeed a large-scale chemical
weapons attack on the areas east of Damascus in the early hours of
August 21.

'It confirms that this was an attack
against civilians, against children and a large number of people were
killed and it is fully consistent with everything we have always argued
about this attack - that sarin was used, that it was on a large scale.'

He
added: 'We have always believed that this was the work, the
responsibility of the Assad regime and everything we can see in this
report is fully consistent with that.'

Mr
Hague said he was 'hopeful' of an international deal for Syria to give
up its chemical weapons but warned it would be a hugely challenging
process.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme this morning, he said it was clear that it was the Syrian regime that held the chemical weapons, and not the opposition.

Together: Foreign Secretary William Hague, left, stands with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, right, and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after a meeting on Syria at the Quai d'Orsay in Paris today

Crisis: Today Syrians flee to Turkey through the Turkish Cilvegozu border gate as the civil war worsens

He said the talks between Russia and America had finally forced Syria's government to admit their possession of the deadly weapons.

He said: 'He (Assad) has to declare the chemical weapons that he has previously denied possessing and hand them over.

'These are in the regime,
there's no consideration being given to securing weapons from the
opposition - even the Russians aren't considering getting weapons from
the opposition.'

He insisted that British military personnel would not be sent into the war-torn country.

'We will not be sending British troops for this or anything else in Syria,' Mr Hague said.

'No boots on the ground, no boots will be deployed. I don't think that will be a good way of providing security in Syria.'

The
United States, Britain and France blame Assad's forces for the attack
and say it killed more than 1,400 people. The government, backed by
Russia, denies the charge and blames opposition rebels.

The
details of the report's contents emerged as the western allies, meeting
in Paris, warned Syria of 'serious consequences' if it stalls on
handing over its chemical weapons.

Kickstarting
a week of intense diplomatic activity in the wake of a weekend
US-Russia deal on the proposed disarmament, the three powers also moved
to bolster rebels fighting Assad's regime and reiterated calls for the
Syrian president to step down.

A security guard walks past concrete blocks that protect the provincial headquarters building in the capital Damascus today

People walk in a narrow alley past a poster featuring Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the capital. A report into the atrocity does not appear to have apportioned blame

The
tough tone triggered an immediate warning from Russia that western
sabre-rattling could derail efforts to bring the regime and rebels to
the table for negotiations aimed at ending a civil war that has raged
for over two years and left more than 110,000 people dead.

US
Secretary of State John Kerry said it was vital that the allies, who
came to the brink of launching air strikes against Assad earlier this
month, maintain the pressure on the regime.

'If
Assad fails to comply with the terms of this framework make no mistake
we are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be
consequences,' Kerry said.

'If the Assad regime believes that this is not enforceable and we are not serious, they will play games.'

British
Foreign Minister William Hague added: 'The pressure is on them (the
Syrians) to comply with this agreement in full. The world must be
prepared to hold them to account if they don't.'

The
United States and Russia agreed in Geneva on Saturday that an ambitious
accord aimed at eliminating Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014 be
enshrined in a Security Council resolution backed up by the threat of
unspecified sanctions in the event of non-compliance.

Russia
has made it clear it will block any move to write an explicit
authorisation for the use of military force into the resolution.

A Free Syrian Army fighter talks on his mobile as he walks along a street in Aleppo today

Lavrov said that kind of approach would scupper hopes of a resumption of suspended peace negotiations in Geneva.

'If
for someone it is more important to constantly threaten... that is
another path to wrecking completely the chances of calling the Geneva-2
conference,' Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

The
US-Russia deal agreed on Saturday gives Assad a week to hand over
details of his chemical weapons stockpiles and calls for inspections of
what the United States says are some 45 sites linked to the program,
which is to be underway by November with the aim of neutralizing the
country's chemical capacity by mid-2014.

The
deal was greeted with dismay by rebel leaders, who fear that the West's
willingness to do business with Assad will consolidate his grip on
power and stall the momentum of moves to provide them with the arms they
need to tilt the balance of the civil war in their favour.

Fabius
and Kerry attempted to reassure the rebels that they had not been
forgotten with the French minister announcing an international meeting
with leaders of the Syrian National Coalition on the sidelines of the UN
General Assembly in New York next week.

'We know that in order to negotiate a political solution, there has to be a strong opposition,' Fabius said.

Syrian activists inspect the bodies of people they say were killed by nerve gas in the Ghouta region, in the Duma neighbourhood of Damascus, Syria

France
has long championed the opposition coalition but there is concern in
other western capitals about the prominent role that hardened Islamist
fighters are playing in the fight against Assad's forces.

Kerry
also emphasized that Assad's agreement to the chemical weapons handover
did not give him any more right to remain in power.

'Nothing
in what we've done is meant to offer any notion to Assad ... that he
has some extended period as a leader, so-called,' Kerry said.

In Geneva, the chairman of a U.N. war crimes panel today said it was investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks in Syria.

Commission
chairman Paulo Sergio Pinheiro said the Geneva-based U.N. panel had not
pinpointed the chemical used in the attacks and was awaiting evidence
from the U.N. chemical weapons inspectors.

Mr Pinheiro told reporters the
commission believes that both President Bashar Assad's government and the rebels had
committed war crimes.

But
he said while Assad had committed crimes against humanity, rebel groups
have not 'because there is not a clear chain of command.'

Experts say around 1,400 people, including women and children, were killed in a nerve gas attack allegedly carried out by President Bashar al-Assad's forces on rebel-held districts of the Ghouta region east of Damascus

A Syrian man mourns over a dead body. Today the UN releases a report on last month's suspected chemical attack in a rebel-held Damascus suburb

He
said the commission had been investigating 14 alleged chemical attacks
since September 2011, adding that they had so far been unable to assign
blame. He said earlier they were awaiting details from today's UN
report.

Mr Pinheiro
emphasised that the 'vast majority' of casualties in Syria's civil wars
is from conventional weapons like guns and mortars.

Last
week, Mr Ban - who was apparently unaware that his comments were being
broadcast on UN television - also said that the Assad regime had
'committed many crimes against humanity.'

Promoting
Britain's stance against intervention, Mr Hague insisted the aim is to
'bring about a peaceful end' to the brutal civil war, now in its third
year.

But he conceded that the 'credible threat of military force' was a key step in the bid to reach a resolution.

Mr Kerry said all the countries
involved, including Russia, were agreed that if Assad fails to comply
'there will be consequences'.

He
said: 'What we achieve in this agreement as we translate the Geneva
agreement into a United Nations resolution has to be strong and it has
to be forceful, it has to be real, it has to be accountable, it has to
be transparent, it has to be timely.

'All
of those things are critical and it has to be enforced. If the Assad
regime believes that this is not enforceable that we are not serious
they will play games.'

He
went on: 'We will not tolerate avoidance or anything less than full
compliance by the Assad regime to the core principles of what has been
achieved here.

'If Assad
fails to comply with the terms of this framework, make no mistake, we
are all agreed, and that includes Russia, that there will be
consequences.'